Press release 12.9. 13:26
- Preparations in full swing
- The "freedom not fear" mass rally at Postdamer Platz, Berlin is gathering pace.
At the moment -- two hours before the start of the march at 3 p.m. -- Potsdamer Platz is starting to fill with people. The participating organisations and parties have set up their information booths, and the main stage is in place.
The organisers expect tens of thousands of people from all over Germany to take to the streets in Berlin and protest against ever increasing surveillance by the state and by businesses.
"167 organisations are supporting this rally. The fact that we have participating organisations such as Germany's second largest trade union ver.di, the AIDS support network Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe, political parties including the German liberals FDP, and the German journalists' association dju, shows that our issue has arrived at the center of politics. It's just that many politicians have not realised this yet", says Rena Tangens of the German Working Group on Data Retention (Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung).
"The general elections on 27 September will matter for surveillance, too. Millions of votes may depend on this issue", Tangens continues. "We expect a large, diverse and peaceful rally on this sunny Saturday and look forward to many participants."
At the start of the rally, speakers will include the data protection commissioner of the Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein, Thilo Weichert, the head of the ver.di trade union, Frank Bsirske, and Franziska Heine of the Working Group on Internet Censorship.
Your contacts Rena Tangens and Oliver Brinkmann can be reached under these numbers in the press tent at Potsdamer
- 030 / 57709 151
- 0176 / 623616 40
- 0176 / 623 616 54
- <enkode>presse@vorratsdatenspeicherung.de</enkode>
- http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Pressecenter
Information on the demo:
http://www.freiheitstattangst.de
The next scheduled press releases will be sent at 16.30 CEST and at the end of the rally, about 18.00 CEST. English versions will be published shortly after.
We will publish participant figures in our press release at 16.30.
Extracts from the speeches can be obtained by emailing presse@vorratsdatenspeicherung.de.